3 Ideas to Discover a Career You’d Love

By: Rachel Wei // Feb 25, 2019

In a previous blog, I talked about how it feels to be “stuck in your job”. I briefly mentioned ways to break out of this feeling and discover new passions. In this post, I want to break down some of the suggestions I made into specific ideas. Hopefully these ideas can help you shake off that burden and get excited for your future. If you’re eager to get a move on a more fulfilling career and life, read on!

Idea 1: Read!

Today, we have a ton of options on how we get our information, but I find that blogs and books are often the most helpful. If you’re not the type that likes to spend hours researching a potential new interest, go with the blogs —they’re short and sweet.

Two of my favorite resources include:

The Every Girl: I’m fangirling over this blog right now. This blog is amazing because it encompasses a variety of topics, from career and finance, to fashion and beauty (and much more!). This variety means there’s something for everyone, and it’s all targeted toward women, so we have a special affinity towards it. If you’re looking for professional inspiration, I highly recommend you to check out their career profiles. They interview notable women such as Jeni Britton Bauer, Founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (is anyone’s mouth watering?) to Marie Kondo, Founder of KonMari Method.
Aspire to Her interviews: Shameless plug over here 😉 If you’re looking for some career inspiration from badass women, we highly encourage you maneuvering over to our interviews. Our interviews cover a span of industries, from finance to fashion, marketing to non-profits etc. On top of that, our interviews are unique because they focus on the early years of career development. Instead of diving straight into their successes, we take the time to map out their career paths by highlighting their early years and filling in the gaps between their jobs. We can attest that these interviews will inspire you as you launch your career.

If you’re someone who likes to immerse yourself in a variety of options, I recommend picking up a book that lists career options and preferably, personal experiences from people who have held those positions.

Here are a couple of my favorite books:

Idea 2: Check out some YouTube videos

Start browsing YouTube for some visual insight into potential careers and interests. If you’re looking to see whether a random hobby can become an interesting career, try searching up if there is someone on YouTube who has a channel based around a similar hobby. It’s no secret that influencers can become financially successful, so you might be able to get the best of both worlds by creating a channel (and thus career) around your hobby.

Examples of women who have made it big on YouTube from scratch include beauty and lifestyle vlogger Zoe Sugg (Channel: Zoella), comedy skit master Lilly Singh (Channel: SuperWoman) and beauty guru Tati Westbrook (Channel: Tati).

If you’re not looking to potentially start a channel of your own, I recommend browsing with a different purpose. Try finding channels that are by professionals in your field of interest. You might be surprised by how many channels there are dedicated to educating people of the variety of career options are out there.

Here is my favorite medical channel and legal channel. If you’re considering going back to school to pursue a different career, there are also tons of channels that give great study habit advice, so you can get ahead of the game.

Medical: I love Dr. Mike’s channel because he has several series that are educational and fun at the same time. He watches and picks apart medical dramas, explaining what the doctors are referencing when they use certain terminology, and also pointing out inaccuracies in the show. He also has something called “Wednesday Check-ups” where he talks about his perspective on current controversial topics. Having a real doctor who you can trust is educated in the field educated you about medical concepts is a great way to gauge whether medicine interests you, and become more informed in general. Med School Insiders is another channel that has great study tip videos, videos regarding medical school, videos on what being a doctor is like, etc..
Legal: Legal Eagle has a similar critique series on legal shows, including the now infamous “Suits.” The channel also has great advice regarding whether law school is worth it, and also covers some current event issues as well (i.e. The Kavanaugh hearings).

I also recommend checking out “A Day in the Life of” YouTube clips. One way of ensuring you’re interested in pursuing a different passion or job, is to truly understand the day-to-day tasks of the position. While you can read about it in articles, we especially enjoy watching it. If you’re interested in seeing what it’s like to be a young, female entrepreneur, check out this video.

Watching YouTube videos is an entertaining and efficient way to gather concrete and realistic information about careers you may want to pursue. It’s also time efficient, as most videos tend to be around 20 minutes. Entertaining visuals also help you explore new interests without having to spend a lot of time focusing (i.e. unlike reading).

Idea 3: Reach out for an “informational interview”

Reach out to those who have personal knowledge about a particular field or topic of interest. This is where you can really make use of your network. Whether it be past colleagues, bosses, or friends from college, this is your chance to obtain insight from someone you personally know and trust. Speaking face-to-face with someone is usually the best way to gather information as it allows you to ask questions in real time and also get a sense of how much a person really likes their job.

We know cold emailing people you don't know, or kind of know, can be scary. Like what are you supposed to say?? Don't worry, we wrote up a few informational interview email templates to ease your fears.

For tips on reaching out to a mentor, check out our Career Guide, “How to approach someone you admire and start a mentorship relationship?” by Venture Capitalist Monique Villa.

Keep exploring! Don’t give up on your search, and don’t be afraid to keep searching. If you don’t zero in on another career or interest immediately, that’s ok! Exploration is part of the journey, and I can’t tell you how many professionals I’ve talked to that emphasized that they’ve had “careers” plural; most people have switched careers three to four times, so it’s totally normal and healthy. It is usually pretty fun too. So, try to enjoy the journey and keep forging ahead!

Exclusive: Download our free informational interview templates. Why start from scratch? We compiled the exact same templates we used when we were reaching out for informational interviews. We included three different types of scenarios too!